1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery check device, suitable for use in a camera, and, more particularly, the present invention relates to a camera including a plurality of devices which are supplied power from a battery and a battery check device having a plurality of battery check levels, which prohibits activation of the camera devices according to the detected level of the battery with respect to the plural battery check levels.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional camera, electrical power is supplied from a battery to internal devices, such as a shutter device, a photometry device, an automatic focusing device, a film feeding device, a flash device, and a shake compensation device for the lens. The activation of the conventional camera is prohibited by a battery check device when the remaining capacity of the battery decreases to a level where a maximum load cannot be driven.
However, the conventional camera has a constant battery check level at which the activation of the camera is prohibited. Thus, the operation of the conventional camera is prohibited when the remaining capacity of the battery reaches a level below the constant battery check level, even if a load device with large power consumption, such as a flash device, is not used. As a result of prohibiting the operation of the conventional camera, a shutter opportunity may be missed without taking a photograph.
Further, in a conventional camera, a photographer can generally selectively prohibit the activation of the camera's auxiliary devices, such as the shake compensation device, the automatic focusing device, the flash device, and so on. In the conventional camera, however, the battery check level required to activate all devices normally is preset at a constant battery check level, and therefore the battery check level cannot be changed even if the activation of an auxiliary device is prohibited. Consequently, if the detected battery level is below the preset constant battery check level, all devices of the camera are prohibited from executing a photographic operation, even if sufficient battery capacity remains to activate the devices other than those prohibited by the photographer.